ORIGINAL. 



THE ADVENTURES 0£ HENRY BIRD. 

[For the Analedic Magazine. \ 

HeniiyRird removed in 1797 from Frederick county, Vir- 
ginia, where he was born in 1767, to the head waters of Sandusky, 
in *he state of Ohio. He was accompanied by two of his neigh- 
bours, John Peters and Thomas Philips, in partnership with whom 
he hud purchased a little tract of six hundred and sixty acres of land. 
At that time, there were no inhabitants within eight or nine miles 
of the spot they had chosen. The first thing they did was to 
build a log hut, with the assistance of their neighbours, who 
each brought a bushel of wheat to support the new-comers until 
they could raise their own grain. Such is the custom in all these 
little frontier settlements, where necessity has revived many 
good old patriarchal customs, and established a neighbourly con- 
nexion among the first settlers that is not seen in other communi- 
ties. 

Here Bird lived till the year 1811, during which time he be- 
came the father of five children, and saw the country change from 
a wilderness inhabited by panthers, bears, buffaloes, wolves, and 
wild turkeys, to cultivated farms, belonging to sturdy, independ- 
ent yeomanry. The first year he came, though no hunter, he 
killed two panthers, and had an irruption made into his pig-sty, 
which adjoined one end of his hut, by a bear, who carried off one 
of his best pigs. For a long time, he was disturbed at night by 
the howling of wolves close under his windows ; but as the coun- 
try became cleared and more thickly settled, they gradually re- 
ceded into the woods, and seldom came near the house. The 
Indians were all about them, and a friendly intercourse had long 
subsisted between Bird, and a warrior of the Shawanese tribe, 
called the Big Captain, who often came and slept at his house. 

But after the battle of Tippecanoe, they all disappeared ; and 
as this was a signal that they meditated revenge, the inhabitants 
gathered together, two or three families in a hut, that they might 



296 ORIGINAL. 

be the better able to resist any sudden attack. Bird's friends, Pe- 
ters and Philips, came to his house with their families, because it 
was larger than theirs, having, as he says, " two fire-places with a 
partition between." The whole number thus collected amounted 
to ninteen, three men, three women, and thirteen children, some 
of them quite grown up. 

On the Ifth of October, 1811, "just after daylight was gone," 
to use his own expression, while Bird was lying down on the bed, 
his wife roasting a piece of buffalo, and Peters and Philips, with 
three of the daughters were sitting round the fire, eight guns were 
discharged through the window, which killed the whole party at 
the fire, and wounded Bird in the hip with two balls. He sprung 
out of bed, but dropped on the floor, and at the same instant the In- 
dians, eighteen in number, burst open the door with a horrible 
yell. Bird endeavoured to climb up so as to reach one of four 
loaded muskets, which hung against the wall, but was followed by 
an Indian who struck him in the shoulder with his tomahawk. 
This blow brought him down, and the Indian cut and hacked away 
at his left side, which was uppermost, until he thought him quite 
dead. Then, having killed the whole nineteen, and being fearful 
that the firing might have roused the neighbourhood, they seized 
the four rifles, the Big Captain gave the retreating war whoop, and 
they all retired to their canoes, which had been left at the head 
of a creek communicating with the waters of the Great Sandusky. 

Here they lay until morning, when, finding all quiet, they re- 
turned to the house and fell to stripping the dead bodies, amount- 
ing to eighteen. When they had done this, they piled them up 
in the middle of the room. The Indians attempted to strip off 
Bird's hunting shirt of tow linen, and were going to scalp hirn and 
throw him on the pile with the rest, when the Big Captain came. 
Bird spoke to him by name, begged to be tomahawked, and told 
the captain "he never used him so when he came to see him." 
The Big Captain then, without making any reply, began to ex- 
amine his wounds, which when he had done, he exclaimed with 
wonder, " that the great spirit would not let him die. 1 will carry 
you home and cure you," said he. 

He ordered two Indians to put Bird in a blanket and carry him 
down to his canoe, whither he followed him ; and while the rest 



<4 

I 

v. 

ADVENTURES OP HENRY BIRD. 297 

K of the party were bringing down the plunder, dressed his wounds ; 
for the Indians always carry with them materials for dressing wounds 
when they go to war. By this time they had loaded their canoes, 
and when the last party left the house, they set it on fire in order to 
burn the dead bodies, among which were Bird's wife and five chil- 
dren. This done, they went down the Sandusky into lake Erie, 
which they crossed and coasted down to the lower end, till they came 
to a creek the Indians called Yo-hoh ; up which they proceeded about 
fourteen miles, to the old Shawanese town. This was a distance 
of near four hundred miles ; during all this time the Big Captain 
dressed Bird's wounds with considerable skill, but handled him so 
roughly as to put him to very great pain. Bird thinks he remem - 
bers every thing that passed in this long transportation, and when 
I asked him about the state of his mind, said " he was so taken up 
with his own pains that he had no time to think of his murdered 
family." 

The Big Captain carried him to his own wigwam, where he lay 
two-and twenty moons before he could walk with crutches. When 
he grew able, his business was to light the Big Captain's pipe, and 
fetch water for him. In this 'last occupation he sometimes met, at 
the spring, American white women, whose families mostly had been 
murdered, and who were now slaves to the Shawanese. One of 
these he knew ; she had lived in Ohio, and her story was that of hun- 
dreds of others, whose husbands and children had been surprised at 
their firesides and murdered. Bird promised, should he ever live 
to escape, that he would give information of the fate of these un- 
happy women, whose number in this single village was fifty-eight, 
and who, doubtless, have long been considered dead. 

The Indians are the most jealous and suspicious of their prison- 
ers of any people in the world. One of them bad observed this 
conversation, without overhearing if, and gave notice that there was 
a plot among the white slaves to run away. , Bird and the poor 
woman were then brought before the Big Captain, and threatened 
with death if they did not confess their plots. He persisted in 
refusing to make any disclosures, and the Big Captain ordered his 
two thumb nails to be twisted off. Finding that Bird still refused 
to make any disclosures, he at last became convinced of his inno- 

Vol. VI. New Series. 07 



ORIGINAL. 



cence, and, by way of satisfaction, directed him to twist off the 
thumb nails of the accuser. This, however, he declined. 

From the time that Bird left off his crutches he had meditated 
making his escape, although he was in general treated pretty well 
by the Big Captain, except when the chief was in liquor. At such 
times even his wife did not dare to come near him, for his passions 
were terrible, and he was accustomed to indulge them with impu- 
nity, because it is a law of the Indians, that a drunken person is 
not accountable for his actions. It is the liquor, and not the man 
that is to blame. In order to throw the Big Captain off his guard, 
Bird affected on all occasions to prefer being the slave of such a 
great warrior to living among the white men, and working hard 
all day like a beast. " I lied," said Bird ; " I don't deny it, but 
I thought it excusable in this case." The Big Captain, however, 
was very suspicious, and would never give him a chance to escape. 

One evening in the latter part of February, when Bird had been 
near forty moons a prisoner, the Big Captain and his Lady both 
got very drunk, and as the rivers were now frozen, he resolved 
to take advantage of this circumstance to attempt gaining Detroit, 
or some other settlement of the whites. He had from time to 
time, by little and little, furnished his knapsack with a good quan- 
tity of jerked venison to serve him in his long journey. On the 
night of one of the last days of February, 1815, he left the Big 
Captain's wigwam, and took a direction as nearly south as possi- 
ble, through the woods, in order to strike the shores of lake Erie. 
There was an Indian path to the take, but he did not dare to take 
that, for fear of being overtaken by the Indians, should they dis- 
cover his absence. It was a cold moonlight night, yet still he 
found much difficulty in keeping a direct course, and it was broad 
daylight before he struck the lake. From thence he continued 
up the lake, until about twelve o'clock, and had got, as they told 
him afterwards, about thirty miles from the town, when he was 
seized by a party of five Indians, as he was sitting on a log eating 
a piece of jerked venison. The Big Captain had discovered his 
flight at daylight, and set off with three hundred men, divided into 
parties of five each, to scour the woods in every direction. 

They tied his hands behind him, and drove him in this way 
about a mile, to a rising ground, where they fired their guns, and 



ADVENTURES OF HENRY BIRD. 



299 



lighted a fire, by setting fire to an old dry walnut tree, as signals 
for the other parties to come in. Here they passed the night, du- 
ring which time about one half of the parties had come in. The 
morning after, they drove Bird into Ihe town, and a council was 
called to decide on what was to be done with him. It was con- 
cluded upon, that as he was determined not to stay with them, he 
should be " burnt three days," The famous Shawanese Pro- 
phet, brother to Tecumseh, was at this council ; his opinions are 
of great weight with (he Shawanese, as he is considered to speak 
the will of the Great Spirit. Bird has seen him often. He is 
about fifty, very ill looking, and no warrior. He was continually 
exhorting the Indians to fight the Americans, and keep them from 
taking away their lands. The influence of the prophet may be 
estimated by the fact that at one time he had prevailed upon 
some of the tribes to abstain from spiriious liquors ; but they 
afterward returned to their old habits. 

The Big Captain came to tell Bird what they were going to do 
wilh him. It was what he expected, and had made up his mind 
to it. About an hour affer sunrise he was taken a little outside 
the village to the war dance ground, where he supposes three or 
four hundred Indians had collected. They tied him down on 
his back, with his feet fastened to a stake, and the Big Captain 
seized a fire-brand, which he held first against his hand, then against 
his arm, taunting him at the same time, by asking " if he intended 
to run away again soon V 9 This was done by others in turn, for 
thirteen different times, at intervals of half an hour, and some- 
times of an hour, so that he might be as susceptible as possible 
to the pain. The intervals were filled up with dancings, taunt- 
ings, and expressions of contempt for white men. The louder 
he groaned, the louder they shouted, exclaiming that " Indians 
never groaned, but the white man was no better than a woman." 
This ceremony continued till within about two hours of sunset, 
at which time the fingers of his right hand were almost consumed, 
and his arm burnt quite to the bone. I saw his hand and arm 
myself, or I could never have been brought to believe that hu- 
man nature could have endured such long suffering. 

At this time there came up one Randall M'Donald, a Scotch 
trader from Quebec. He had been all through that country, 



soo 



ORIGINAL. 



buying furs, and was now on bis way home, with a caravan of 
sixteen mules and four horses, loaded with skins. He was well 
known to the Indians, and offered to purchase Bird for a gal- 
Ion of rum, which, he told the Big Captain, would afford them 
a much better frolick than burning a poor white man. The bar- 
gain was struck—the Big Captain took the rum— Randall M'Don- 
ald, with his own hands, cut Bird loose, put him on one of his 
horses, and set out immediately. They travelled ail night, for 
fear the Indians would repent their bargain after drinking the 
liquor, and reclaim the poor half-burnt victim. In nine days, Bird 
thinks, they reached Kingston, where Randall bought him some 
clothes, and got a surgeon to attend him. They staid four days 
at Kingston, and then went down to Quebec. Ail the time during 
this journey he was attended kindly by Randall, who took him 
home to his house in Quebec, employed a surgeon, and he soon 
got well enough to be able to travel on foot. The good Scotch- 
man then told him he might take his choice, either to remain 
with him or go home. Bird chose the latter ; and Randall gave 
him money to carry him to the frontier; and sent him off with 
his good wishes. In these miserable times of national antipathies 
and savage warfare, it is gratifying to trace, in the conduct of 
Randall M'Donald, that steady, untiring benevolence, which adorns 
and exalts our nature. That he should have saved the prisoner 
at the stake is nothing. But that he should carry him with him, 
and support him, through such a long, tedious journey, dress his 
wounds in the wilderness, afterward take him to his home, and 
finally give him money to support him till he got to his own 
country, is what, I fear, few could have done under the like cir- 
cumstances. Let us, then, do honour to this benevolent Scotch- 
man, who saved one of our citizens from the stake, and sent him 
safe to his home. 

The money given him by Randall M'Donald lasted Bird till 
he came to Vermont ; from whence to Washington, he subsisted 
on the benevolence of his countrymen. In general, he says, he 
had little to complain of. His story almost always gained him 
food and lodging, and, with very few exceptions, he was seldom 
turned away from any man's door. Misery and poverty so seldom 
knock at the doors of an American farmer, that his heart is not 

BD 1 2.8 



ADVENTURES OF HENRY BIRD. 



301 



vet steeled to apathy by becoming familiar wilh objects of dis- 
tress. From the. borders of Vermont, he travelled by land to 
Albany, where the Patroon* got him a passage, free, to Egg-Har- 
bour, and he says he thought his lady would never have done 
sending provisions on board the vessel for him. From Egg- 
Harbour, he came across New Jersey to Delaware Bay, which 
he crossed to Jones's creek in the state of Delaware, whence he 
went to Haddaway's ferry, crossed the Chesapeake to Annapolis, 
and arrived at Washington the 6th day of July, 1815. His object 
in coming there, was to fulfil his promise to the poor women of 
the old Shawanese Town. If is wifh pleasure I add, that he was 
admitted to an audience of the president, and that measures have 
been taken, by the proper authority, to recover these unfortunate 
captives, should they be still alive. 

I saw him, and inquired particularly into his story, which he 
repeated as I have given it, without variation or embellishment. 
There was a striking manliness in his deportment, and he told his 
tale with such an air of simple truth, that I could swear to every 
word of it. I asked if he had any objection to its being made 
public ? He said none, provided I did not make a fine story about 
him. He was going among some distant relations in Frederick 
county, who he said would take care of him as long as he lived, 
and he did not want them to think he wished to be the hero of a story. 
He had more than forty wounds — his shoulder was partly cut off, 
his thigh gashed with seams, his side scarred with a tomahawk, 
his fingers almost burnt off, and one of his arms in some places 
nearly bare to the bone. Yet, he neither repined or complained 
that his lot was harder than that of other men, but exhibited, 
more than any being I ever saw, an example of that philosophy 
which is the offspring, not of reasoning, but of suffering, and of that 
inflexible hardihood which a long^succession of labours, dangers, 
and hardships ever inspires. P. 

* Stephen Van Rensselaer, Esq. of Albany, commonly known by this title in the 
state of New- York. 

2 



[ 302 J 



Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, By Dugald 
Stewart, Esq. F. R. S. &c. Vol. II. 4to Edinburgh. Bos- 
ton, reprinted, 8vo. 

The Quarterly Review, No. xxiv. January, 1815. 

In common with many of our countrymen we had adopted the 
metaphysical doctrines of Dugald Stewart ; and, until the appear- 
ance of some strictures on his last work, in a late number of the 
Quarterly Review, it never occurred to us that the application of 
the inductive method could lead to false conclusions in relation 
to the intellectual faculties of man. But we must now be com- 
pelled to abandon this belief, if the strictures of the Quarterly 
critics possess a weight at all proportionate to the confidence with 
which they are advanced. According to them, Stewart's theory is 
radically absurd ; his application of the novum organum altogether 
paradoxical ; and his whole system conducive of no good prac- 
tical purpose whatever. This is certainly a heavy sentence up- 
on the labours of a man whose brilliant powers of intellect have 
been directed for more than forty years to the investigation of the 
phenomena of the human mind : and when we consider the nature 
of the tribunal from which the judgment proceeds, and the mixed 
character of the individuals who discharge the censorial functions, 
we cannot acquiesce in their decision till we have fairly and 
fully examined the arguments upon which it is founded. Such 
an examination we flatter ourselves to have made; and the result 
of it is a decided conviction that the inferences of the Quarterly 
Reviewers proceed from an entire misapprehension, if not a gross 
misstatement, of the analogy which Mr. Stewart institutes, to show 
that mind and matter are precisely upon the same footing in re- 
spect to the means by which their laws and properties are respect- 
ively ascertained. That our readers may have the merits of the 
controvert (if such it may be called) fairly before them, we 
shall state as succinctly as possible the substance o* Mr. Stew- 
art's reasoning on this head, and extract his own eloquent illustra- 
tion of that part of his doctrine to which the observations of his 
critic more immediately refer. In prosecuting this inquiry, at- 
tention should be paid to the guarded and cautious language of Mr. 



